Three Action Heroines I actually liked

Tags

character chat, legend of the seeker, mistborn, salt, strong heroines

I’ll be blunt, I usually despise females in warrior roles. Why? I feel like they aren’t characters at all, just cardboard cutouts. They either aren’t allowed to have flaws or their flaws are excused by virtue of femininity. (Whole other blog post in that.) Anyway, here are the first three action heroines that come to my mind when I think of my favorites and they are my favorites with good reason.

Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt in “Salt.”

Evelyn Salt (Salt, 2010)

I keep seeing all these people whine about the lack of female action heroes and I want to hit them in the face with this. Salt is an incredible portrayal of a female spy/assassin who is not invincible, makes miscalculations, gets knocked down, but always gets back up. She basically leads a one-woman war against two governments and is pretty much as hardcore as they come. She’s probably my favorite action heroine in film, but not many seem to have heard of her (and judging by their mewling online, that includes Feminazis).

Vin (Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson)

If we’re talking vulnerabilities and relatability, Vin takes the gold without batting an eye. Insecurity and softness mixed with awesome power and a capability for terrible destruction, Brandon Sanderson really set a standard here. It is impossible to be in possession of a heart and not want to protect Vin, even though she’s the character who tears through 300 soldiers and comes out with nary a scratch (seriously, that happened once).

Tabrett Bethell as Cara in “Legend of the Seeker.”

Cara the Mord Sith (The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind/The Legend of the Seeker, 2007-2009)

Cara is pretty much all the things I usually dislike in a character—sassy, sarcastic, dominant, sometimes outright cruel. But the author (and the writers of the television series) spent huge amounts of time humanizing and sympathizing the Mord Sith order as a whole. The reader/viewer is shown how much pain these women are in (physically and emotionally) every second of their lives. We see Cara cry and regret and mourn, then turn right around and level entire an entire battalion while dragging an evil sorceress by the hair.

I really wish there were more action heroines like this. Not one-dimensional tropes like Black Widow in Iron Man 2 or Andromeda in Wrath of the Titans. These three ladies are characters that feel real and I think that’s what all characters should be.

Post-Mission Report: Spring Break 2015

Tags

am reading, college, falling kingdoms, lists, mistborn, my life, my tbr pile, spring break, the fireblade array

Day #1
Monday began with a rude gesture to the alarm clock as I slept in. Eventually, I dragged myself out of bed to complete my weekly running ritual in case I ever do find that blue police box.

The rest of the day was invested in writing (I refuse to tell you what) and as soon as I met my daily word quota, I turned to reading Gathering Darkness (Falling Kingdoms, #3) by Morgan Rhodes. I laughed, I cringed, I freaked, I fangirled—and I didn’t even finish it.

Day #2
As the sun set, I had once again bested my dread word count quota. After completing the last few chapters of Gathering Darkness, I reached for The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) by Brandon Sanderson. I had missed Elend and Vin and I was delighted to see them again—sweet babies that they are.

Day #3
On this day, I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30. Can you imagine? 6:30 on a vacation?

However, it proved to be worth it. I spent the morning getting the Key of Amatahns uploaded, proofed, and approved for Amazon and began setting up the celebratory blog hop. I was even able to meet my daily word count quota on The Project That Shall Not Be Named.

That night, I stayed up with my adoptive children Vin and Elend past 3:55 a.m. There were three armies attacking at once—I had no choice.

Day #4
I made more progress with The Project to Which I Shall Never Confess. There was a minor panic attack somewhere in there over something, but I can’t remember what it was.

I finished The Well of Ascension at 2:50-something in the morning, then spent a bit of time too scared to turn out the lights because of the creepy being that showed up at the end.

When I finally did get up the courage, I laid there in bed, feeling depressed. How the hell could I ever hope to write as well as Mr. Sanderson? That guy’s a bloody genius.

Day #5
I started the very adult Epic Fantasy, Anomaly of Blaze (The Fireblade Array, #3) by H.O. Charles. This endeavor was interrupted by a great deal of arguing, yelling, and general mayhem as my mother and brothers attempted to get the house presentable for a playdate.

Despite everything, the playdate was a success and I made friends with their classmate’s three year old sister, who seemed to think I was cool for some reason.

Day #6
Saturday came with packing in preparation for our move and more panicking, but when we were done, everyone else went out to watch Kingsman and I was left at home because they knew better than to drag me out in public.

I worked on my word count and paced around the house, enthusiastically quoting Khan, Ravenna, Morgana, and some of my own villains. I find that practice oddly therapeutic. (Had the neighbors heard, I’m sure they would be moving right now, thinking that they were living next to a psychopath.)

Day #7
We went to church and then lunch, where we discussed politics over Bulogi wraps and green tea. After a delightful time watching Cinderella, we all went home before I departed for my father’s house where I fooled around on the internet and did more work on That Which Must Not Be Mentioned.

As you know, honor demands that all homework be completed as late as humanly possible. At 1:00 Monday morning, I began to work on an assignment from two weeks earlier. Hopped up on caffeine, I managed to get it done before crashing into bed and thus ended my Spring Break of 2015.